(en) [France] The radio without God, without masters and without advertising for more than thirty years By ANA (ca, it, pt) [machine translation]

Date
Mon, 3 Sep 2018 10:08:16 +0300

History of Radio Libertaire , the voice of the Anarchist Federation ---- An anarchist
radio on FM waves? The bet might have seemed like a challenge ... And it still is! On
September 1, 1981, Radio Libertaire , the radio of the Anarchist Federation (FA), first
issued its voice in Paris and in the suburbs. ---- True to its original commitments, Radio
Libertaire never stopped fighting for the freedom of the waves, claiming its autonomy in
relation to the State and refusing to enter into the system of commercial radios, of
well-endowed radios. ---- Thanks to the help of her listeners, she was able to remain a
true free radio "without god, without masters and without publicity". ---- Nothing,
however, has been won in advance, and Radio Libertaire will have to earn its right to
issue amidst thousands of difficulties and despite the repression and maneuvers of the state.

It was the Congress of the Anarchist Federation that, in May 1981, signed the birth
certificate of Radio Libertaire . After long and contradictory debates, this congress
unanimously accepted the idea of launching a radio that would be the organ of the FA. This
radio still did not have a name, no call sign, no real project, no host and, for its
launch, a budget of 15,000 F! No congressman at this time could have predicted the
sequence of events, except that, at first, anarchy would again be in the air. As in 1921,
when the Kronstadt insurgents launched radio messages; as in 1936 in Spain with Radio
CNT-FAI, or when the anarchists participated in the free-to-air movement in France in the
late 1970s, including Radio Trottoir (Toulon) and Radio Alarm whose animators were members
of the Anarchist Federation.

It was on September 1, 1981, at 6:00 p.m., in a humid basement on the Montmartre high that
the radio adventure began. And in a very rudimentary way, in precarious conditions,
defying the laws of the radio: a 12-square-meter studio with a paraphernalia of recovery
equipment, a mini-team of six people. First calls from listeners, letters from first
listeners ... and the first interference!

Meanwhile, many ex-prisoners of free radio were setting up high-end studios to conquer the
future cake of FM waves. The spirit of free radios has already begun to agonize, victim of
the financial appetite of some officials of radios ex-pirates. In August 1983, the
Socialists put an end to "wave anarchy", confiscating many transmitters, including Radio
Libertaire . On August 28, at 5:40 am, the CRS (Republican Security Companies) appeared in
front of the facilities of Radio Libertaire . They broke through the door, picked up all
the material. The animators were questioned and arrested, the antenna cable and the pillar
were cut. Neither the armored door, nor the numerous listeners present, could impede the
taking of our radio. The Socialists, then in power with their allies of the Communist
Party of France, certainly did not fairly evaluate our resolve, much less the solidarity
that thousands of listeners have shown us over the last two years. Two years of building,
day after day, solid and friendly links between Radio Libertaire and its public. The
answer was immediate. It's impressive. Its most important aspect was, on September 3,
1983, a manifestation of 5,000 people and the re-broadcast of Radio Libertaire .

The intense and warm moments were so numerous, the twists so frequent that it is
impossible to report in an article: the galas, the congestion of the "money-radios", the
problems with the power, obtaining the derogation, the manifestations ... one can draw ,
through these events, the chronology of important dates in the history of Radio Libertaire
. The most important, in fact, can not be written. This is the daily and collective
history of Radio Libertaire , which we all have, hearers and animators, from the plots.
These are tens of thousands of hours of transmission, of telephone communications, that
have generated correspondence, exchanges and meetings. Radio Libertaire was built over
time. They all brought their stone: their voice, their knowledge, their competence, their
energy. Radio Libertaire , is also this listener who brings a microphone (can be useful to
them); this one leaving your business card (I'm an electrician, if you need ...); this
retired (I'm sick, and you know my retirement is lean ... but come and eat someday.); this
blind man who, thanks to the ads of mutual support, can walk tandem (bicycle of two
places) in the field with a young woman ... and brings back flowers to the seat of the
radio; All these letters reach 145, Amelot Street, to support, ask a question, encourage,
suggest, inform, criticize. When a magazine, an association, an individual, a union, the
Anarchist Federation, these phones are exchanged, the meetings that are marked, these
networks are created and reinforced.

The cultural identity of the station was built over time. The first animators brought
their albums to the studio and made known to thousands of people, artists such as
Debronckart Fanon, Servat, Gribouille, Jonas, Utgé-Royo, Aurenche Capart and many others.
In 1982 came so naturally in our waves another song that we heard in the squats , at the
margin of the system: alternative rock. Then other songs naturally found their place on
Radio Libertaire: jazz, blues, folk, industrial music, rap, reggae. Obviously, other
artists met the radio that opened for many forms of expression: comics, visual arts,
theater, literature, cinema ...

Radio Anarchist Radio Libertaire , however, opened its microphones to its friends:
anarcossindicalistas of the CNT or other unions, Free Thinkers, Pacifist Union,
Esperantists, Human Rights League. And once again it is in daily life, in struggles and
encounters, that the whole natural opening of Radio Libertaire to the social movement is
constructed: striking workers, the unemployed, the homeless, squatters, antiracists,
ecologists, refractories, exiles, ex-convicts ... Seizures of the crisis occur, and the
daily work of Radio Libertaire is disturbed by the exigency of the moment. It is the
student movement of 1986, and Radio Libertaire becomes the radio of the movement: reports
on the streets, round tables in the studio, antenna open to witness police violence,
agit-proppermanente . The Gulf War explodes, and Radio Libertaire becomes the "anti-war"
radio echoing all the RL, which announces rallies, rallies, neighborhood committee
meetings hour after hour, while proposing debates and analyzes. Just as naturally, it is
in these hot moments that Radio Libertaire finds its true dimension of radio of struggle.
At Radio Libertaire , there are also a thousand reasons for listeners to bother, attack,
protest against technical imperfections or comments they find to be incongruent,
provocative, too reforming, or too radical. But it is especially, we hope, reasons to
discover the pleasure of debate, struggle and libertarian ideas. Disputes ... Fascinations
... And that's good! In a mercantilized, dehumanized, spectacularized world, where
triumphant ca
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